An Arrangement of Sorts
by MistressofHearts
Summary: When war looms on Konoha's horizon, an arranged marriage is set up between two clans from Konoha. She marries to save her people, despite knowing that she may never find love. He marries out of duty, a search to find his own significance.
1. The Council Meeting

To me marriage has always been a romatic fantasy of boy loves girl. I was the quintessential romantic and I was in love with love. I was sixteen and naïve; it never occurred to me that I was not yet in charge of my own life.  
"Sakura-sama?" I turned to see Haruka standing in the door to my bedroom. "Your father has requested your presence in the meeting room."

"Oh?" While it wasn't unusual for me to sit in on council meetings; my father usually told me these things in advance. Normally, I knew what would be discussed during the meeting because I took a keen interest in Konoha's current affairs (I was after all the Haruno clan's sole heiress), but things had been eerily quiet in the past week.

"Please hurry, he said it is very important." I nodded and put on a sweater and shoes before walking to the meeting room. It was surprisingly full, even the grudging Hyuuga elders were present. "Sit." My father placed his hand on the chair next to him. I obeyed and swiftly took my place just as Tokei began to speak:  
"As you know, a war has broken out between the Shonomes and Mizihiro clans, two clans from the Sound. While we are now in good standing with the Sound, we are very aware that they are powerless to stop this clan battle from consuming their village. We had hoped that the clans would contain the war within their village, but both clans have begun to recruit other clans to assist them in their feud. If we do not intervene, more clans, and ultimately more villages will be recruited to take part in this war. We have done our best to prevent the people of Konoha from learning of this new danger, but the crisis seems to be escalating quickly. We have called this emergency meeting to discuss what we can do."

The room went silent. Each man and some women stared silently thinking of what to say or do. Tsunade, seated at the head of the table, placed her feet firmly on the ground before standing. "I believe that we need to figure out a compromise between the two clans that will make them come to a common ground. A sort of thing that could allow them both to be equally disadvantaged so as not to try to fight the other." She sat down having made the work of the elders and councilmen more difficult.

The meeting continued; different members of the council proposed plans that they hoped might be able to stop the imminent war, but all were shot down for being either too aggressive or too passive a proposal to work. I could sense the panic and frustration filling the small room; each person racked his or her brain for a possible solution, but none could be found. After a long and very frustrated silence, councilman Murasaki stood to adjourn the meeting. My father then stood up, and I let out a deep breath thinking the meeting was finally over. But instead of leaving he began to speak:

"I am sure many of you know that the clans still follow many of the traditions of their ancestors. Though they are becoming increasingly modernized, they are still open to some of the ideas of the past."

"What are you getting at Shuuhei? If you have a plan that might work just spit it out; this meeting has gone on for far too long." A Hyuuga elder replied harshly.

"My plan is to arrange a marriage between the two clans." That did not carry over so well.

"Ah brilliant! I suppose we'll march right into their crossfire, pick out their heirs and make them get married. Everything will be just peachy!" Tsunade mocked.

"That is perhaps the dumbest idea any of us have had!" another voice crowed.

"Of course the Haruno would turn a foreign affairs meeting into a history lesson! "

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade placed her hands down hard on the table; (so hard in fact, that there were indents in the table around her fingers). "Haruno-san brings up a good point. Though we are a modernized society the clans still observe many traditional cultural values. That means if we find the right boy and girl, preferably the heirs, both clans will be on level ground." She looked around the room. "What I think he meant is that if we find powerful clans who are held in high regard by both clans and arrange a marriage between them, we might be able to force them to stop their battling."  
"Hokage-sama, while I understand what you are saying and I agree that it is a smart move; where will we find such people?" Tokei questioned.

Tsunade's brows furrowed. "I was hoping that Haruno-san had thought that part of the plan through."

Tokei turned to my father. "Haruno-san, do you have anyone in mind?" 

"The Haruno clan is actually an important branch of the Mizihiro clan. We are still held in high regard by the larger branch of the family. The Uchiha clan of Konoha is an importnat branch of the Shonome clan. Our clans both have strong ties in the neighboring villages of Konoha where the fighting has already begun to spread, so if our heir were to marry we might be able to form a stable alliance between the Mizihiro and Shonome clans." I was stunned; it was a brilliant plan that would definitely work if implemented, but I was the Haruno heir. It was my life and my freedom that were being auctioned off.


	2. Sleepless

There was a nervous, angry, sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach that evening. In a little while I would be married off to some guy, against my will and without my consent. If that didn't seem bad enough, it was my own father that had orchestrated the marriage. I wiped a tear off my face as I stood in the doorway of my room questioning whether or not I should go and eat dinner with this man. Just thinking about what he had said at the meeting made me grip the doorknob tightly. I closed the door behind me and sat on my bed; it was pointless it go to dinner, seeing my father would only make angrier. Seeing him seated at the head of the table, the high and mighty Shuuhei Haruno making decisions "that will benefit the clan," without actually asking the members of the clan what they wanted. No, of course not, he must have just known that I have been absolutely _dying_ to marry a man I barely know.

A light knock came at the door. I looked at the white door with tears dripping down my face; I definitely did not want anyone to come inside and find me lying on my bed crying. I wiped my face but said nothing. Another three light knocks followed. Whoever this was, I wanted them to just leave me in my pain. The doorknob turned, and I quickly buried my face in my pillows.

"Sakura-chan? Sakura dinner is ready and your parents want you to come down and eat." It was Miharu. I sighed loudly before answering her with a short ok. She quietly closed the door behind her as she left.

I went into the bathroom next door to my room and washed my face. The redness in my eyes refused to go away, but at least my face looked little bit less puffy. I quickly smoothed my hair and changed my shirt before walking to the dining room. My parents sat eating their meal, no doubt waiting for me. Hopefully, this would be a quick and short meal; if nobody spoke, it might even be a painless one.

Unfortunately, I had only taken a sip of water, when my mother began talking.

"I think that we all need to talk." She glanced at my father and then at me with warm green eyes. I let out a sigh, but I didn't say a word.

"Well I know that this is sudden for you Sakura-"

"Sudden?" I asked incredulously. "This is not sudden; you carefully planned all of this out without my knowledge. This was planned. I can't believe that you would decide this without even asking me what I thought, or how I felt."

"There is no need to be dramatic Sakura." My father warned sternly.

"I'm not being in the least bit dramatic! This is my future!"

"Do you think we had a choice?!" My father yelled. "Do you think we suddenly woke up and decided that the Uchihas would make good in-laws?"

"How would I know! You never tell anyone anything! You make decisions about the lives of everybody in this clan without so much as informing them of the reason why."

"I will not be made the enemy here! I made the decision to arrange this marriage for our protection, not just the protection of this clan, but for the protection of our village, as every ninja is trained to do."

"But how? How are you protecting me by making me leave my family, by marrying me off to a man that I barely know? You're not protecting me; you're risking my own happiness in life. You're using me like a political pawn. "

"Well it's done. The Uchihas have agreed to the marriage." And with that, I knew my fate was sealed. I stared at my plate unable to eat any food; for my mother's sake I tried to force myself to eat at least half of my plate, but after taking three bites I was sure that my appetite was gone. I murmured an excuse and left the table for my room.

I sat on my bed contemplating what exactly was going to happen now. I couldn't outrightly reject the proposal since the clan heads made the final decision on arranged marriages. And it was clear that my father was not going to change his mind about the marriage. The only other plan I had was to run away, but it would take days to travel to another village, and I knew that Tsunade would send a squad after me once she had knowledge of my disappearance.

As I contemplated, a knock came at my door. Before I could move a muscle, my mother opened the door and entered the room. I watched as she sat at the foot of the white canopy bed, and I knew from the concerned yet tender look on her face that she wanted to talk.

"Sakura, I know it's hard for you to believe right now, but it is hard for your father and I to have to see you married off like this." Gazing into her pink eyes, I could tell that she had also been crying.

"Nobody's forcing you to do it."

"Don't start like this again Sakura. We heard your side, now listen to ours." I pulled the pink pillow in my lap to my chest and hugged it tightly.

"The Shonome and Mizihiro are recruiting allies in other villages in order to outmuscle each other. Three days ago they sent word to the Uchiha and Haruno clans asking for us to join in their battle as branch clan members. They have already recruited allies in the Mist and in the Sand, but thus far we haven't heard back from the ANBU squads sent out about the status of the war in the Grass and Waterfall villages. We knew that if we accepted, Konoha would be a war target." Her gaze shifted to something behind me.

"We knew immediately refused the offer, but we didn't know what the Uchiha clan would do. That first night, your father and I couldn't sleep. We didn't know what we could do to protect the village from this threat, especially if the Uchiha had allied themselves with the Shonome. We called a clan meeting and began to think of what we could do. On Tuesday, the Uchiha asked to meet us to discuss the clan war. We prepared ourselves for a possible ambush, but they told us they had refused to ally with the Shonome. That night we called another clan meeting to decide what courses of action we could take. Again, we couldn't think of anything feasible. Frustrated and tired, your father called a council meeting hoping that the elders and Tsunade would be able to come up with some solutions.

He had gone through so many options, but nothing seemed even remotely helpful. Later that night I was reading through the traditional clan laws to see if maybe something in it could help us. I found a segment saying that the elders of a clan had the final say regarding arranged marriages. I didn't want to say what I was thinking, but I showed it to your father. Immediately he penned out a marriage proposal to the Uchiha clan; we both knew it was the only thing that could be done."

My mother looked at me with hopeful, reddish eyes. I understood then, why the house had been quiet and why the tension in the air during the meeting had been so high. Nobody had slept in the past few days, they were waiting for an ambush and thinking up any way that they might be able to prevent it. My father had spoken last in the meeting because he had wanted to see if there was a better solution, one that would allow him to keep our family together. He and everyone else with some sort of authority were making sacrifices to protect the village. But even with all the sacrifices, I was now beginning to understand that we were still very much in danger.


End file.
